Zopa to the rescue

Borrowing to and lending from banks is often associated with a lot of paper work, bureaucratic and administrative bottleneck.

But an online investment called Zopa ( Zone of Possible Agreement), has come to the rescue.

It is the marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money

It is regulated by a number of official bodies, and safety measures minimise risk for lenders

It is backed by the same investors that backed eBay, Betfair and Skype

It was set up in March 2005 by many of the team behind Egg, the UK's biggest online bank and over 100,000 people in the UK have joined so far.

Furthermore, Zopa is a peer-to-peer investment/loan system where people borrow from, or lend to, other members of the network (cutting out the need for a bank and their profit margins). Currently operational in the UK, it is soon to launch in the US and is set to revolutionise money lending and borrowing.